Japan - Kamakura

I spent 2 days in Kamakura, or rather, just outside Kamakura in Fujisawa.  Hotels are a bit more expensive than I’m used to, so I’m trying to stay away from tourist areas.  So far its worked out fine, the public transportation here is awesome, although also expensive.  All the stops are in Japanese and English and the ticket machines have English instructions.  If there are any questions, the train staff and fellow travelers have been very helpful. Even if we don’t speak the same language; pointing work quite well.  Kamakura has dozens of temples, tombs, shrines, parks, and hiking trails.  I could easily have stayed longer. 

As soon as you get off the train you see a huge red gate; the entrance to the city, or at least the main shopping and restaurant street.  It was jam packed with people; some shopping, some gawking at all the street food, some even daring to try something new.  I had some sakuramitarashi dingo; 4 or 5 round rice dumplings on a stick, covered in some sweet sauce.  I tried the cherry blossoms and sugar.  I’ve seen these sweets everywhere, it’s very popular.  To be honest, it tasted like plain dough dipped in a sugary cherry syrup.  I thought it was OK, but I didn’t need to try another flavor. 

I had to look up the difference between a temple and shrine, because I had seen both while in Japan and I couldn’t tell the difference.  A shrine relates to Shintoism, which originated in Japan.  A temple is based on Buddhism, which originated in India.  In terms of appearance; a shrine has a red archway called a Torii, which symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to sacred. A temple has gates and often buildings at the entrance.  If there is a cemetery attached, it’s probably a temple. 

In a temple, you wash your hands and mouth for purification, burn incense, throw a few coins in the offertory box, then clasp your hands together and say your prayer.  To pray in a shrine, you do basically the same, except you bow twice, clap your hands twice and bow deeply. 

I had an easy to read map of the town, with all the temples, shrines, and other sights listed.  There were easily 30 or 40, no way could I see them all.  I basically just started walking till I came to one, which was Jufukuji Temple, the oldest in Kamakura, dating back to 1157. The founding Buddhist Priest, Myōan Eisai came from China and introduced Zen, and green tea, to the Japanese. 

This was a pretty basic temple, with not much more than a pretty gate and pathway.  The trail led to a building that was closed, but if you continued following the path it led to a cemetery.

The next temple was Kaizo Ji Temple and this one was much bigger.  It was established in 1394, also by a Chinese Buddhist Priest.   It’s knows as the temple of flowers and water.  It looked more like a garden then a temple, it was very pretty.  There was a wedding or engagement photoshoot taking place with a couple in traditional Japanese dress. 

Next stop was Kuzuharoka jinja Shrine, the prettiest and most interesting yet.  I found it in the middle of Geniyama Park amid beautiful tree lined hiking trails.  According to JapanHoppers.com: “Kurumazaki-jinja was constructed at the end of the Heian period (794–1185) that is dedicated to the Confucian scholar Kiyohara Yorinari who served the emperor. He is widely believed to be a god of "not breaking promises”, and so people come here to pray to be able to protect their business promises, receive business prosperity, and help keeping their marriage vows.  He is also known as deity for helping one find a romantic partner”. 

 

 Unlike those I had visited earlier in the day, this larger shrine had a handwashing station and a wishing station.  It also had something new, a broken plate station called “Ma-Saru-sihi.”  Ma= negative factors in life, Saru=leave, depart, Ishi=rock.  A sign explained that you “throw a dish at the rock to be rid of all malign influences in life, which are recognized as forms of impurity that disrupts the flow of life energy and suppresses the potential for positive human development.  Throwing the dish at the rock symbolizes the overcoming of various obstacles in life.”

The next day I headed off in the opposite direction, toward the beach.  I saw a few smaller shrines along the way, one was up a long flight of stairs.  It didn’t look interesting enough to warrant climbing up and down the stairs, so I kept going.  I saw small groups of school children and eventually I was stopped by one such group.  They were interviewing western tourists along the road, I’m pretty sure the point of the assignment was to practice their English.  There were about 5 of them, maybe 10 or 12 years old.  Their English was good but pretty limited.  As you would expect, the shyer kids were happy to let one bold girl do all the talking. Oh no, I wanted to talk to all of them, so we went around and introduced ourselves and where we were from.  They wanted a picture with me and were delighted when I asked for one of them in return.  Since I’ve been in Japan, I’ve noticed many groups of school children out and about.  It seems the education system here is much more hands on.  It’s not just the random field trip to someplace special; I see groups of kids at the park, in the bigger temples etc.  You can tell the groups apart from their hats.  It seems each group has a different color hat and boy does it work!  You can easily spot the brightly colored heads in a crowd. 

My first destination that morning was the Giant Buddha.  According to Japan-guide.com; (a great website by the way) “The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu) is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple. With a height of 11.4 meters, it is the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan, surpassed only by the statue in Nara's Todaiji Temple. The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were destroyed multiple times by typhoons and a tidal wave in the 14th and 15th centuries. So, since the late 15th century, the Buddha has been standing in the open air.”  I will say, he was an impressive sight. 

Next up was the Hasedera Temple, which was more like a really nice garden.  Japan-guide.com says; “Hasedera is a temple of the Jodo sect, famous for its eleven-headed statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. The 9.18 meter tall, gilded wooden statue is regarded as one of the largest wooden sculpture in Japan and can be viewed in the temple's main building, the Kannon-do Hall. According to legend, it was carved from the same tree as the similarly tall Kannon statue worshiped at the Hasedera Temple in Nara Prefecture.”  I never saw the eleven headed statue of her, but there were some pretty ponds and a nice zen garden, complete with white sand raked in different patterns. 

I did see a hall dedicated to Daikoku-do.  According to the sign, he is one of the Seven Japanese Gods of Fortune.  He’s the god of wealth or household, specifically the kitchen.  He had a wide face and beaming smile and you often see him holding a golden mallet and standing or sitting on a bag of rice, just like his statue depicts. 

I finished my day with a walk along the coast.  I found an overlook with a great view of Mount Fuji.  Although it was pretty hazy in the distance, I was able to clean it up a bit for a decent photograph. 

All day, I had seen hawks circling overhead, presumable hunting.  I tried my best to get a good picture, they were flying pretty low and seemed to be riding the air currents.  Alas, none of the flight ones came out, but I did see one sitting on a power line.  I had never seen so many hawks in one place, I saw several small groups of them, probably 20 different birds in all.  On the beach I saw warning signs, I wondered if they bombarded people. 

One thing I’ve noticed about the Japanese, they are beyond polite.  I bumped into a lady the other day and she profusely apologized, to me!  I of course said I’m sorry, but she backed away from me bowing and saying so sorry!  In most of Europe, bumping into someone is such a common occurrence, often neither party even acknowledges it.    On the train, the ticket taker came through from the front of the car to the back.  When he was done, he walked all the way back to the front, took off his hat and bowed to everyone, then walked to the back again, into the next car.   At the bus stop, everyone forms a line before the bus even arrives. You walk down the street and see random lines of people before realizing it must be a bus stop.  Everyone is so helpful; if you look the least bit lost or confused, someone will stop to help.  This applies not only in a train station, but on the street, in a grocery store, at a restaurant.  Even if they don’t speak a word of English, they will still try to help.  I had an entire conversation in a convenience store about chocolate milk.  She spoke only Japanese, I spoke only English of course.  I have no idea what she said, but my chocolate milk turned out to be milk coffee, which she apparently thought I wanted.  In a hotel elevator, a desk clerk asked if she could ride in the elevator with me.  I said sure, its your elevator.  It’s also a nice change from China; no one spits, hawks, snorts, shoves, cuts in line or litters.  Oddly, I noticed no one gives up their seat on public transportation to the elderly or anyone carrying a baby or the handicapped.  I’m sure if someone asked, half of them would jump right up, but I haven’t seen anyone ask, they all seem ok with standing. 

The trains are really nice too, plenty of leg room.  There isn’t much room for luggage if it doesn’t fit in the overhead rack, so most people put it in front of them on the floor.  You still have room to stretch out, even if the person in front has their seat fully reclined.  All of the seats are facing in the direction of travel.  When the train reached its end destination, they simply swivel the seats around, facing the new direction of travel. 

There are soda and canned coffee machines on every corner.  The machines have such a wide variety of drinks, most I can’t identify, but they have Coke, Red Bull, green tea, black tea, tea milk, many varieties of coffee, fruit juice, flavored water, fruit nectar, and a few even have Dr Pepper or Mt Dew.  What I don’t see is anyone buying or drinking them.  Ice coffee must be very popular here, every convenience store sells a cup of ice with a sippy lid.  I of course use it for soda, but its really made to pour coffee in. 

Most of the restaurants have pictures in their menu, but many have plastic food on plates.  In Tokyo, there is an entire street of restaurant stores, selling everything you need in a restaurant, including the plastic food.  This is a bit helpful, but most of the time, you really can’t tell what it is.  Most of the description isn’t in English, so you only have the picture to go by.  I kept seeing these plates with what looked like fried chicken or pork cutlet, with a big pile of something green.  I couldn’t tell if it was noodles or shredded cabbage or something else.  Curiosity got the best of me and I had to try it.  When you walk into the tiny restaurant, there is a machine where you place your order by pushing a button next to the picture.  You can choose your language, which is very helpful.   I got a pork cutlet stuffed with tomato sauce and cheese.  You then sit at a long table facing the wall, jamming yourself in next to other diners.  The food was surprisingly good.  And the pile of green?  Turned out to be thinly shredded cabbage.  An odd paring, even more so that it came with rice and miso soup, but no spoon.  I watched the people around me, no problem as we were shoulder to shoulder.  You are supposed to dunk the rice in the soup, using chopsticks.  The cutlet was in pretty big pieces, as was some other meat dishes I’ve had.  No problem, you pick up the whole thing with chopsticks and just bite off what you want. 

 

Link to Pictures - https://photos.app.goo.gl/Kgt2HcbjSg2z9T3T7